


Firestarter

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Series: The Winged Jedi [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Female Obi-Wan Kenobi, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 05:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13651935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: Years and years have passed her by, but the High General's return makes her feel like a Padawan again. The perfect intangible power of the Jedi has returned to a galaxy torn apart by rage.





	Firestarter

Hera sent them a transmission to herald Fulcrum's arrival. Their sect's leader was not someone they seen very often and months usually passed between meetings or even just messages. They had been running pretty much alone, but one message to Central Command on Naboo and suddenly, Fulcrum was on her way. 

It pissed Kanan off. 

He'd been struggling for so long to find not only his place in the galaxy, but in the Rebellion, and as a Jedi without training. Sure, he had more than Ezra, but that was hardly saying anything. He'd wanted her help, but she'd refused. Now, when he had something  _she_ wanted, she couldn't get there fast enough. 

That was what he was feeling when the starfighter landed. 

"The kindling in you mind will catch fire sooner or later."

He jumped, spinning around to face Kenobi in all her perfect serene Jedi bullshittery. 

"When the flame of your resentment burns out, when all that you sought to do is done, you will be left alone once more in the bitter dark."

"You're really preachy for someone who I  _didn't ask._ "

She shrugged. "It is the place of the Jedi to walk with the learning along the path into the Light. I know my words get to you. Perhaps, in time, when your jealousy subsides, you will learn to appreciate what they mean and the intent with which I spoke them."

"I've never liked preaching much. A lot of vapid air with no real meaning or importance. And usually, its something the preacher doesn't do on his own."

"Good thing I'm not a 'him' then." She hummed, walking past him to stand on one side of the starfighter. 

The main pod opened and a tall (for a Togruta) woman hopped out. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she rushed across the open space and threw herself into Kenobi's arms, laughing when Kenobi spun her around. 

"Master!" Ahsoka breathed, the biggest smile Kanan had ever seen on anybody rising, unbidden, to her lips. "Light, I hardly believed it when Padmé told me. I came as soon as I heard about it and my fighter was fueled." Ahsoka's hands, fluttering at her side, rose up to cup the avian's face, tears beading in her eyes as she took in the ginger. "You can't possibly understand how happy I am to see you again."

Kenobi reached up to skim the length of her montrals. "To me, it was only a few days ago. But then, so was the last time I seen Rex."

"I know this must all be overwhelming." Ahsoka became more muted, more of Fulcrum creeping into her voice. "I promise, Master, we'll do everything we can to help you, make it an easier transition. I can't get you and the clones off-planet now, but I've got a ship on its way."

Kenobi seemed amused. "You seem to think that you have something big enough to carry my men, even when we did not transmit the number of troops."

Ahsoka's smirk was crooked. "I was in space with Anakin, remember? I knew what you went down with. Besides," She rubbed her arm like a Padawan again, nervous and shy but so eager, "the day you disappeared is not one I'm ever likely to forget."

Kenobi frowned gently, pressing their foreheads together. "It will not happen again, Padawan. I promise."

Ahsoka huffed a laugh. "Not much of a Padawan anymore. I left the Order, even before the Fall."

"I'm sure you had your reasons." The Master replied, calm and unflappable as ever. It very sight of her serene command brought a wave of gentle Force Light sweeping over her, one so sparse anymore in a galaxy ruled by Vader's darkness. "Will you be staying with us until such time as your surprise transport arrives?"

Ahsoka nodded. "I brought some supplies with me, mostly water."

"That's fine. Rex says he knows where to hunt if rations run low. Water is our main priority."

Ahsoka nodded, her smile quick and her eyes bright. She hopped to the Master's command and it almost sickened Kanan seeing someone as wise and powerful as Fulcrum fall at this Jedi's feet like a lapdog. He didn't remember even doing that for Depa, at any point before or after becoming her apprentice. He didn't like the look of subservience on her, nor the comfortable way Kenobi demanded her respect and obedience. Even with her wings, the Master didn't seem like she had earned the title properly. She didn't seem like a Master so much as a well-armed actor impersonating a Jedi but truly lesser. 

Waxer came over and for a moment, Kanan was sure he was going to try and talk to him, but the bald clone moved past him to Ezra, picking the boy up with no trouble. 

"Waxer!" Ezra giggled, the childish action so strange to see on the pre-teen. Kanan suddenly wondered if he was the reason that the boy didn't laugh.

"Stop your squirmin'." The clone chastised affectionately. "Commander Tano might he a flexible little thing, but we're not. I need you to get in the supply hold behind the chair and pass me the water tanks."

"You could have just asked." Ezra smirked, hopping up from the wing of the fighter to fold down the pilot's chair and shimmying under the durasteel plating. 

"Where's the fun in that?" Waxer, who had also climbed onto the fighter, swung his leg over the metal hump behind the cockpit. Boil was on the ground, ready to to take the supplies. Blueyes was on the other side of the cockpit, but just observing. 

"We didn't visit the Temple as much as I would have liked." Blueyes commented, sapphire gaze tracing across the sky. "The younglings were a lot of fun, liked to wear our helmets."

"Are they different from stormtrooper helmets?" Ezra asked, passing up a tank of water. 

"Yeah." Rex cut in, smiling softly at the domestic (for a clone) scene. "Stormtrooper armour is garbage. We have all manner of Heads up Display inside ours to help us in battle. The Kaminoans took great pride in their work."

Boil paused mid hand-off. " _Took_?"

All of the clones within listening range stopped what they were doing, turning to face the Captain. Waxer's face looked oddly stricken. Rex swallowed thickly, as though he hadn't meant to say it. 

"Darth Vader destroyed Kamino so no one else could have it." He said, quiet and sombre. 

"Were there . . . ?"

Rex shook his head. "Don't ask. It's better not to know."

All the clones present wilted. Kanan didn't understand why. It's not like they spent long on Kamino, had any real place to call home. It had been their birthplace and their training centre, nothing more and nothing less.

Ahsoka and Kenobi had listened in, Ahsoka slumping under the weight of the knowledge as well. Kenobi's face was stiff, but not unkind. 

"There are still brothers worth saving." Kenobi announced over the wounded silence. They switched their attention to her, suffocating men hoping for air. The planet's evening was upon them and the twin suns, dipping into the horizon the colour of magma, set the copper Jedi ablaze. A beacon in the coming night and the devotion in the clones' eyes was hard to resist. Their trust in her was so complete it compelled those around her to do the same. "There are brothers we can still save. We must serve the memory of Kamino and those upon it with the rekindling of faith in each other and strengthening the bindings of love between us. Millions of souls stand with us, in the light of day and in the depths of our dreams. Their brilliance adds light to the Force. I will ensure that through me, they will stand with you once more. My power is their power."

"Your power is our power." Ghost Company chanted back. She smiled softly, inclining her head. "We are made for the Jedi."

"And we for you." She finished. In unison, General and Company raised their arms, cracking their left bracer into the inside of their right one three times before hitting their right wrist against the armour over their chests. 

Boil approached her in the stillness, resting his forehead on her shoulder, but not otherwise embracing her. "Can we be together tonight?"

"Of course." She replied instantly, petting over the short strands on the back of his neck. "There will be no nameless, no forgotten."

"Pure and clean, even in shadows wanton." He finished, hiding his face in her neck and resting his hands on her hips. He breathed her in as though she carried the very essence of life in her smell alone, before backing up, head still bowed. 

"Tonight," She announced, projecting her voice more fully, "we will be together. Until then, unfortunately, there is work to be done."

Ahsoka was openly shocked at the display. Kenobi motioned for her to follow her beyond the ring of ships and clone ears, but Kanan couoldn't keep to himself over somethign like that. As soon as they were beyond the clones' hearing, but not their sight, the words inside him broke free.

"What the hell was that?" He said, more demanding than he had originally intended. 

Kenobi sighed heavily, for the first time showing the strain the war had taken out on her and what her strength cost her. She didn't dim, the flame still crackling away inside her, but she bowed to the pressure and it just seemed unnatural. 

"The 212th was one of three primary attack battalions. That means that we were always on the front lines, always taking the hardest hits, losing the most men, doing all the painful work. Even if they are all the DNA of one man, each of them is unique. Their Force signatures are all different and beyond that, they are human, altered though they may be. It's not easy to lose one man and casualties were high. Always high."

"They were soldiers. Didn't they just desensitize?" He knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment he said it. Ahsoka's gaze sharped into a pointed glare, but Kenobi only turned her crystalline eyes to the purpling sky. 

"I was looking for Cody in the early hours of the morning when I found a shiny with his gun sitting in a darkened section of the lounge. He was crying openly weeping and shaking. He put the barrel to his forehead and if I hadn't have been there, he would have pulled the trigger. He'd lost his whole squad, the men he called brothers, the ones he grew up next to. It had been his first battle, so new he didn't even have a name."

Ahsoka had paled considerably. Kenobi lowered her piercing gaze back to him, those vivid eyes tearing right through his soul. 

"He's inside that ring of airships right now and his brothers know him as Hope. In the rush of war and mounting desperation, much of what made up the Jedi was lost to the desire for victory. Our love, compassion and care for those under our control was something that faded from our minds. I pulled back the whole battalion, against express orders and I shared in their fear, their loss, their trauma. I taught them the Mando'a prayers for the dead and partook in the post-battle rituals with them. They are alive, and we forgot to treat them that way."

Ahsoka bowed her head now, ashamed. She had been guilty of it more than once, so used to all of the interchangeable faces that she missed all the unique feelings. She had failed so many times as Jedi. She didn't remember Anakin doing anything as extravagant, but she recalled the hours he would spend in the barracks, doing Light knows what.She was ashamed to have missed it, to have failed lives so wholly. 

Kanan felt ripped apart by those eyes. Too hot and too cold all at once, reaching into him and drawing forth old lessons that made him feel like garbage. He had run from the Jedi way, it was not his fight - but she drummed up the haunting echoes of Code hymns in the back of his mind and he felt more helpless than he had standing frozen and terrified behind Master Billiba as she was slain.

"Attachment is forbidden."

She was unphased by the comment. "Fear leads to anger leads to hate leads to suffering. My decision came down to which one I could live with."

* * *

The clones had done their best not to be melancholy, but Ezra could see it in them. The weight of this Kamino place must have been big to hurt all of them so profoundly. 

But then nightfall came and the clones built another fire, all gathering about it, leaving one wide open space. Obi-Wan dropped down from the tank,walking over the fill the space with a little collection of tools. 

"I don't have a complete collection, so each wing man gets one pinion brush and the one at my back gets a feathered comb. Cody, the order, please."

"Every man gets twenty minutes. Boil, Blueyes, Valor, Helix and Helios are first. Each of you remember the man you're after?"

A chorus of "yes sir" returned to him and he nodded. 

"Alright." He looked down at his comms unit. "Time begins in sixty seconds."

The chosen brothers quickly gathered their tools, moving to their preferred position and settling down comfortably as Obi-Wan let her wings fall into their laps. 

"Shall we commence the  _aay'han_?" Obi-Wan asked, glancing around at the assembled clones. 

" _Elek_." Longshot replied. 

Ezra lent forward, trying to get a good look at her. She caught his movement, motioning for him to come over to her. He did so sheepishly, as though he was caught spying. She simply opened her folded legs and had him sit between them, running her fingers through his messy hair. A strong, serene calm washed over them and they removed their helmets, taking each others' hands. At once, their voices rose together in a harmonious chorus, every bit the heartfelt prayer it was meant to be.

" _Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni parayli, gar darasuum._ " They sang out together, bowing their heads, holding a note of silence before murmuring namesbarely heard over the crackling of the fire and the strokes of the brushes. 

But Ezra was pressed close to Obi-Wan's chest, tucked under her larger frame and he could hear the names she murmured to herself. They sounded mostly clone, until she reached near the end. " . . . Qui-Gon, Satine . . . " She hesitated, taking a deep breath. " . . . Anakin."

He wanted to know what they had said, what it meant, the significance of it and if it was only a clone ritual. The overwhelming sensation of grief cut off the questions and it took him a moment to figure out that, somehow, the clones were excising their emotions into the Force, releasing all the seeds of darkness. 

"Close your eyes and open your soul, Padawan." She murmured, low and husky, into his ear. He shivered against her. 

"I don't know how."

She took his hands in hers, cradling them in her lap. Her Force signature crawled up his skin and crept into him, lighting the way inside himself. She gently pushed open a door and the sudden  _rush_ of the Force inside him was dizzying. He felt intimately connected to everything around him, from the little lizards meters below them, to the distant kelp in the ocean, to the open hearts of the clones. Each one was individually lit, alive and pulsing. Some of them were brighter than others - Waxer shone brilliantly alongside Boil's greyer, muted shades - but there was no darkness. With each chant of a name, memories of laughter and family surfaced, kindling love. Behind him, he felt the strongest pulse of light. In his mind's eye, he turned to her, taking in the glow of Obi-Wan. She was bright and hard to look at, like a star, but there was something inside the humming blue glow - a woman, skin blemish free and pale as Seelos' sand with eyes and hair as lush and green as the fields of Naboo. The woman harbouring herself in Obi-Wan's soul raised a finger to her lips, asking for his silence. He gave her his acceptance, to keep her secret.

He shifted around again, feeling like he was weightless in space, looking at a starmap. 

_I want to know you._

_Then know them_. He jerked at Obi-Wan's rumble, her voice echoing in from everywhere. The clones seemed to feel it as she expanded her field, her protective sphere of light encompassing the entire camp. Ahsoka's signature, though closed, accepted the familiar touch. Rex's quivered, but remained steady, familiar. Kanan actively recoiled, shutting them out and he was immensely sad for the elder man - he didn't only suffer loss, but was losing himself to loneliness. 

_I want to help him._

_Then reach for him._  

_I don't know how. I've never not only been me._

The faintly blue curl of Obi-Wan's light wrapped around him, leading him as she had with their hands in his lap, out to Kanan. The elder shied away still, but less so than he had to Obi-Wan. He tried again, caressing the hard shell of Kanan's walls. 

_Let me in. Please. I can help you._

The walls closed tighter.  _No one can help me. They're all gone._

Obi-Wan pulled another section of him away, passing their collective touch over the minds of the clones surrounding them. Cody responded most to Obi-Wan's touch, visibly uncoiling and relaxing with intimate familiarity and trust so deep she could control his very essence with a command. The other clones seemed to know her touch as well, some going as far as to recognize that there was a foreign little hand in hers. 

 _I have you. All of you. I will never bring you harm._ He didn't know who's benefit she was saying it for, but everyone surrendered to her. She let them reach the peaks of their emotional swells, then took their hands and slowly guided them back down to grounding. He didn't realize she was doing the same to him as well, rearranging him to fit better inside himself, showing him all the places he hadn't known were there. The clones already knew themselves well, confident and empowered in their own skin. Those who had started as roiling waves of turbulence were humming now only with acceptance - acceptance of all that was and all that is - and readied will and endurance for what was to come. 

He had never been here before. He had never understood what it meant to be more than yourself, what made the Jedi as powerful as they were. Maybe Obi-Wan was just exceptionally talented and skilled, a Master beyond compare, but he could only imagine the kind of resonance a Temple full of Jedi would have. He thought it would ring like birdsong - natural, beautiful and haunting. 

Obi-Wan's light eased him back into his own body, letting him go. She retreated from the minds of her men as well, her touch careful and loving with an undeniable fortitude. She was a stronghold in the darkness, both inside and out. And slowly, the starmap faded away from his eyes. He became aware of the warmth at his back first, the protective shell of Obi-Wan. Then the wind in his hair, cool with evening, then the sand beneath him. Sound followed after that, then he opened his eyes.

Eight rotations of men had been by. Those not waiting for their turn were milling about, cleaning organizing or chatting amongst each other. The others, waiting, were sitting quietly watching the fire, lost in thought until Cody's comm beeped their finished time. He chanced glancing over at Obi-Wan, her head hanging over his shoulder. Her eyes shimmered in the firelight like kyber crystals, all-knowing and all-powerful. 

"I hope I did not overwhelm you." She murmured, still low and soothing. She looked less daunting in the real world, smaller, weaker. He wouldn't have tested her before, but now he most certainly won't. 

"What was that?"

"Meditation." She stroked her fingers through his hair. 

"Can you teach me how to do that?" He'd never felt so good in his entire life. 

"Of course. It is as essential to a Jedi as a lightsaber, perhaps more so. To know oneself is to be able to conquer all that one is and can be. Once you can do that, the world lays itself at your feet."

"I can't really feel my body."

"That's just because you're not accustomed to sitting so long. We have been here for a little over three hours."

"That was only three hours?" He gasped. 

"I went very slowly for you. It can be very damaging for a learner to be pushed in or pulled from meditation too fast. And you are more sensitive than most."

"Why?"

"I imagine because you were not raised in meditation, as most Jedi are. Anakin was much the same way."

Cody's fingertips brushed over them cautiously. When he had their attention, he spoke. "Are you okay, General? That one was much longer than normal."

"Yes, I am. Ezra needed guidance inside the Force." She explained, smiling softly, lovingly, up at him. Ezra wondered if she loved him like Kanan loved Hera, with enough power and passion to overwhelm the world. 

Cody nodded, standing back a bit, but still within arm's reach. "Switch out."

Ezra turned sideways, curling into her and pulling up his knees. "Can I stay with you tonight?"

She hummed softly, petting down his back. "Of course."

He drifted in and out of awareness until midnight, when he felt her retract her wings. He looked around as she changed their position, laying on her back in a sea of yellow and white gathered around them. To his unsurprised surprise, he spotted Cody's fingers entwined with hers. 

"Sleep, youngling." Waxer whispered into his hair, Boil already sleep on his breast. "You'll feel more like yourself in the morning."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Aay'han - bittersweet moment of mourning and joy
> 
> Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum - "I am alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal", traditionally followed by the names of loved ones.


End file.
